Adeel Akhtar

Not to be confused with Aadeel Akhtar.

Adeel Akhtar is a British actor. He is known for his role in Murdered by My Father, for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 2017. He is also known for Utopia, Ali & Ava, Showtrial, and Sherwood (2022), for which he received the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor. He won the Outstanding Supporting Performance at the Children's and Family Emmy Awards for his role in Sweet Tooth in 2023.

Adeel Akhtar
Born	London, England
Education	Oxford Brookes University (BA) New School (MFA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2002–present

Early life and education

Adeel Akhtar was born in London, to a Pakistani father and a Indo-Kenyan mother.^[1]

He was educated at Cheltenham College^[1] Junior School from 1991 to 1994 and then moved to Cheltenham College in Newick House from 1994 to 1999. He completed a degree in law from Oxford Brookes University in 2002 but decided to follow his passion and change to acting, training at the Actors Studio Drama School, then within The New School, in New York.^[2]

Career

Akhtar's first major role was as the bumbling Muslim extremist Faisal in Chris Morris's film Four Lions.^[3] Other comedic performances include Gupta in The Angelos Epithemiou Show,^[4] Maroush in The Dictator^[4] and Smee in Joe Wright 's Pan.^[5]

Akhtar has also won acclaim for his dramatic performances: in 2015, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his 2014 role as Wilson Wilson on Channel 4's Utopia.^[6] He played shopkeeper Ahmed alongside Toby Jones in the BBC mini-series Capital,^[7] and DS Ira King in the BBC's River.^[8] Reviewing River in The Daily Telegraph, Michael Hogan wrote, "This series was beautifully written by Abi Morgan, stylishly directed, and most of all, superbly acted. The quieter, less showy supporting players also shone. Not just stalwarts [...] but fresher faces: Adeel Akhtar as River's endlessly patient sidekick and Georgina Rich as his psychiatrist".^[9]

In 2016, Akhtar appeared as Shahzad in the BBC one-off drama Murdered by My Father. He won the 2017 BAFTA award for Lead Actor for this role,^[10] the first non-white actor to do so. In 2017 he also took part in the American romantic comedy film The Big Sick, playing the role of the protagonist's brother, Naveed.^[11] He appeared as Rob Singhal in the acclaimed BBC miniseries based on John le Carré's The Night Manager.^[12] In 2019, Akhtar appeared as Billy in the BBC Three series, Back to Life, written by Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon, returning in 2021 for the second series.^[13] In 2024, Akhtar appeared as Sam Malik in the second series of BBC drama Showtrial.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Traitor	Hamzi
2010	Four Lions	Faisal
	Side by Side	Isaac	Short film
	Stranger Things	Mani
2012	The Dictator	Maroush
2013	Jadoo	Vinod
	Convenience	Shaan
	The Cost of Living	Jimmy	Short films
	Keeping Up with the Joneses	Jerry
2014	War Book	Mo
2015	Pan	Smee
2016	The Big Return of Ray Lamere	Ray	Short film
2017	The Big Sick	Naveed
	Hampstead	Wiggin
	Victoria & Abdul	Mohammed Bakhsh
2018	Swimming with Men	Kurt
	The Therapist	Adam	Short film
2019	Murder Mystery	Maharajah Vikram Govindan
	The Show	Carpenter
2020	The Nest	Steve
	Enola Holmes	Inspector Lestrade
2021	Ali & Ava	Ali	Nominated - British Academy Film Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
	Everybody's Talking About Jamie	Iman Masood
	The Electrical Life of Louis Wain	Dan Rider
	Robin Robin	Dad Mouse (voice)	Short film
2022	Save the Cinema	Mayor Tom
	Enola Holmes 2	Inspector Lestrade
2023	Murder Mystery 2	The Maharajah	[15]
	F.O.G	Sanjay	Short films
	The Puppet Asylum	The Narrator
	The Walk	Amar

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Let's Roll: The Story of Flight 93	Hijacker Saeed Al Ghamdi	Television film
2006	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Hazim	Episode: "Dollhouse"
	Conviction	Dr. Darpan Banerjee	Episode: "Downhill"
2010	Angelos Epithemiou's Moving On	Gupta	5 episodes
2011	Coming Up	Hasan	Episode: "Hooked"
	Comedy Showcase	Gupta	Episode: "The Angelos Neil Epithemou Show"
2013	Trollied	Ray	Series 3; 13 episodes
	The Tunnel	Anwar Rashid	Episode #1.7
	Coming Up	Baz	Episode: "Doughnuts"
2013–2014	The Job Lot	George Dhot	9 episodes
	Utopia	Wilson Wilson	11 episodes Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor[16]
2015	River	Detective Sergeant Ira King	Mini-series. 6 episodes
	Capital [7]	Ahmed Kamal	3 episodes
2016	The Night Manager [17]	Rob Singhal	5 episodes
	Murdered by My Father	Shahzad	Television film Won – British Academy Television Award for Best Actor
	Flowers	Doctor	Episode #1.4
	The Circuit	Gabe	Television films
	The Last Dragonslayer	Mr. Brittles
2017	Unforgotten	Hassan Mahmoud	Series 2; 6 episodes
	Apple Tree Yard	Jaspreet	Mini-series. 2 episodes
2017–2018	Ghosted	Barry Shaw	Main cast. 16 episodes
2018	Fairy Job	Magical Ahmed	Mini-series. 3 episodes
	Counterpart	Casper	2 episodes
2018–2019	Les Misérables	Monsieur Thénardier	6 episodes
2019–2021	Back to Life	Billy	11 episodes
2019–2022	Killing Eve	Martin	5 episodes
2021–2024	Sweet Tooth	Aditya Singh	Main role. 23 episodes Nominated – Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance (2022) Won - Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance (2023)
2022	Sherwood	Andy Fisher	Main cast. 5 episodes Won – British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor
2024	Fool Me Once	DS Sami Kierce	Mini-series. Main cast. 8 episodes[18]
	Showtrial	Sam Malik	Series 2
	Black Doves	Prime Minister Richard Eaves	Co-starring

Stage

• 2008: Zero as The Colonel (Theatre Absolute)
• 2008: In My Name as Zaeem (Old Red Lion & Trafalgar Studios)
• 2009: Wuthering Heights as Yusuf (Tamasha Theatre Company)
• 2010: Satyagraha (Ensemble) (Improbable theatre)
• 2011–2012: Hamlet as Guildenstern and Francisco (Young Vic Theatre)
• 2024: The Cherry Orchard as Lopakhin (Donmar Warehouse)
• 2025: The Cherry Orchard as Lopakhin (St. Ann's Warehouse)

Accolades

Award	Year	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
British Academy Television Awards	2015	Best Supporting Actor	Utopia	Nominated	[19]
	2017	Best Actor	Murdered by My Father	Won	[20]
Children's and Family Emmy Awards	2022	Outstanding Supporting Performance	Sweet Tooth	Nominated	[21]
British Academy Film Awards	2022	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Ali & Ava	Nominated	[22]
British Academy Television Awards	2023	Best Supporting Actor	Sherwood	Won	[23]
Children's and Family Emmy Awards	2023	Outstanding Supporting Performance	Sweet Tooth	Won	[24]